Hey Cash
Kids!

Let me ask you a big question...

What if I
told you that you could be a millionaire one day just by saving a little bit of
money each year starting NOW — even as a teen?

In this
episode, we’re talking to Adam Bergman, a retirement expert who’s
helped over 17,000 people invest using self-directed IRAs —
including his own kids! He’s going to break down how YOU can
start investing in things like Bitcoin, real estate, and even small businesses...
yes, even as a teen.

We’ll talk
about:

✅ The secret power of Roth IRAs

✅ How compounding returns make your money grow
faster

✅ Why starting early gives YOU the biggest
advantage

So if you're
serious about building real wealth and taking control of your financial future
— you do NOT want to miss this.

Before we
dive in — don’t forget to like, subscribe, and leave us a review if
you're loving the podcast. Your support helps us reach more future millionaires
just like you!

Alright,
let’s get into it.

(intro
tease)

Cash Kid:
Hey Cash kids. Welcome back to the Cash Kid Podcast and today we're doing an
interview with none other

than
the Adam Bergman . He's the founder of IRA Financial Group And IRA Financial
Trust, which are the leading providers of self-directed IRA plans and 4 0 1 Ks.

He's
helped over 17,000 clients make alternative asset investments with their
self-directed plans. Adam has published nine books on retirement plans and
Taxation is a frequent contributor to Forbes and has been quoted in over 250
major publications. He's passionate about educating Americans of self-directed
investment plans and passionate about my generation and learning about these
types of investment strategies earlier in life. I'm excited to learn from Adam
today. So hey Adam. Welcome to the show, and first off, tell us a little bit
about  yourself.

Adam Bergman: Well thanks so much for having me. Really excited. So I
was a tax lawyer and um, for eight years in New York City. Really, um, always
wanted to be an entrepreneur. Didn't really know what I wanted to do. And I had
the pleasure of being able to help a client who wanted to use his IRA to invest
in what's called a hedge fund.

Right?
It's, a more advanced way to invest. So I was asked to research how he was,
able to use his IRA to invest in a hedge fund, and I was totally blown away
because. I couldn't imagine myself, always thought of myself as a really, you
know, smart guy. I was a tax lawyer of a master's in tax law and I had no idea
that you can use your IRA to do alternative assets like real estate or gold or
hedge fund.

So
I quit my job and started IRA Financial about 15 years ago.

Cash Kid:
you have adults save retirement and really like unique ways. So can you explain
just like what a self-directed plan is, but in a way that a kid or teen could
understand  it?

Adam Bergman: Sure, sure. So I'll, let me double click on that and
just give a little bit of history and make it easier to understand. So in 1974,
IRAs were created Not a lot of Americans got to save for retirement. Right. It
was mostly if you worked at big companies like Ford or GE, you had a defined
benefit plan, otherwise you just didn't have a chance.

So
the government created ERISA, which created the IRA and the 401k, which are the
two most common ways to save. So what is the foundation? What's an IRA or an
individual retirement account? Basically anyone that has some income that
works, that has a job, could open an IRA. So you can be a lifeguard, you can be
a basketball coach, you can work at the grocery store.

You
can do chores for a neighbor, as long as it's really not a parent paying you.
You can have income and you can put money into an IRA. And what's the
advantage? Well, there's two big advantages. One is you get a tax deduction for
what you put in. Meaning if you make $20,000 and you get a $5,000 tax
deduction, you only pay tax on 15,000, which is good.

It's
less money goes to the government. And the second is the most important. It's
called tax deferral. That means you don't pay tax when your money is invested
in an IRA. So here's a simple example. If you take a hundred dollars and buy
Bitcoin, okay, or or Tesla stock, and it goes to $200 in an IRA and you sell
it, you don't pay any tax.

If
you did that in a non IRA account, you would pay income tax on that gain. And
if you did that for the next 10, 15, 20, 30 years, you're gonna have a lot, lot
less money if you saved in a non IRA.

Cash Kid:
Right. Yeah. And I feel like that's a big factor, and that's part of one of the
reasons that we really wanted this interview is so we could teach people the
different, like investment strategies or different ways that you could invest
through different platforms. And so being able to show like the unique
benefits, I think would be really beneficial for us at our age.

So
thank you. And, uh, third of all, why do you think it's important for people
even young people like us to start thinking about money for the future now
instead of waiting till we're adults.

Adam Bergman: Yeah, so being young, you have the biggest advantage. I
have a 14-year-old and 11-year-old, and they both have Roth ira, so lemme just.
Discuss that real quick. So I talked about the traditional IRA where you get a
tax deduction. There's something called a Roth IRA, which is an after tax IRA,
meaning you do not get a tax deduction, but once you're 59 and a half and the
Roth's been open at least five years, you pull out everything tax-free.

You
never, ever, ever, ever have to pay income tax again on what you save. So
here's an example. I like to give examples because I think they make the most
sense. So let's take an easy example. How about someone's 15 years old? Okay.
And let's say they have a job at the grocery store, and let's say they wanna
save a thousand dollars a summer, right?

They're
gonna spend some money and do some stuff with it. But let's say they just wanna
put away a thousand dollars a summer, which is possible, and let's just say for
argument's sakes, that from age 15 to 70 years old, okay? So even if they go to
college and make more money, the individual just puts away a thousand dollars a
year.

Starting
from 15 to age 70, and let's just say they get an average rate of return of
8.5%, which is pretty good, but not great considering. If you look at like the
S&P 500, the largest index in the stock market, it averages over 10%. So if
you did that 15 to 70 a thousand dollars a year, eight point a half percent
rate of return at age 70, you'd have a million dollars.

Okay,
so here's how about this, instead of 15, let's say you started at 25. Okay?
Instead of 15 years old and you started 25 a thousand dollars, guess what? You
only have $450,000.

So
this is so important. That's why I'm so excited to be on this podcast. If you
are young, you have the biggest advantage, and that's time.

And
the way the retirement system works is the more money you put in and the more
time you have, the richer you become.

Cash Kid:
Yeah, and I think that's one of like one of our main like factors and things
that we're trying to get people to do. So I, at my school, I was given the
opportunity to give a presentation, so I made a financial presentation about
how to make money and what to do with it, and in it, I really hit on the like
big impact that, uh, starting early is like one of the biggest benefits you
could possibly have because I did the same example I said if you started at 16
and then you started at 26 and the difference is basically almost half as you
just explained.

And
so it really just shows like the important and beneficial factor of starting
early. And that's why we like to say it's never too early to start. So what's
the difference between regular investing and alternative investing, and could
you give us another fun  example?

Adam Bergman: Yeah, absolutely. So. When IRAs were created back in
1974, the, the IRS did not distinguish between an IRA that bought stocks, which
is traditional investment, anything that's publicly traded, right, like stocks
or exchange traded funds, mutual funds, and then alternative assets, which are
non-publicly traded, like real estate, uh, gold, hedge funds, private equity,
private businesses, lending your friend money.

Even
Bitcoin is considered an alternative. So it's, it's anything not traded on a
public exchange, anything that's not a stock.

Cash Kid:
So basically, uh, you just, instead of traditionally buying a stock, you'd set
it into like maybe a Bitcoin or like a house that's just like not as like
publicly traded,  is what you're saying.

Adam Bergman: Exactly. it's exactly right. So

the
reason why the government wants us to invest not just in stocks, but in real
estate or Bitcoin or gold or private businesses, is because they want us to
diversify, right? The idea is that if you put all your eggs in one basket and
something happens to the stock market, you don't just lose 30% of your net
worth in one day, which has happened.

So
like for me, my best investments I ever made and my kids as well, was Bitcoin.
I got into Bitcoin over 10 years ago. I started buying Bitcoin for my kids five
years ago and that has far exc